


Into the Mountains

by EternalSurvivor



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Spirits, Digital Art, Eventual Romance, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, Kakashi Week 2020, M/M, Mutual Pining, No Actual Romance Until Iruka is Eighteen, Slow Burn, THERE IS ART!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26537398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalSurvivor/pseuds/EternalSurvivor
Summary: Kakashi preferred his life complication-free.That’s why he chose to ignore the potential dilemma wandering along the periphery of his domain.A human child was on Mount Myoboku.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58
Collections: Kakashi Week 2020





	Into the Mountains

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission for Kakashi Week 2020! I've been excitedly waiting all week to post this on the appropriate day. So this is for the September 18th prompt AUs. The idea is loosely based on a manga I read as a teenager. For the life of me, I can't remember the name. If anyone can think of it, let me know? It's bugging me a bit. 
> 
> Either way, hope you all enjoy!

There  were a million, quintillion other ways he wanted to spend his summer. Skipping rocks in the creek with Izumo and Kotetsu. Reading comics at the library with Iwashi. Even getting dango with Anko would be better than  _ this! _

Yet, here he was. Stuck in the middle of _ nowhere _ because of a stupid family obligation. Puffing his cheeks out to show his displeasure, Iruka yanked his suitcase from the trunk. At least Mum got him the new bag he wanted for grading. This one had wheels on the bottom.

Not that it did any good with the walkway all lumpy and bumpy. 

He knew Grandma found it hard now that Grandpa was gone. That was why he had to spend the summer here, a  _ thousand miles  _ away  from anything. It would be so boring! There was nothing to do in Uzushio! It was all mountains and forests. The closest store was a half-hour drive away. 

Couldn’t Grandma come to them in Konoha? 

It’d be so much easier.

Shoulders slumped, Iruka followed his parents towards the Umino homestead. Dad already told the story of it being in the family for generations. How Uminos from all over the Land of Fire used to gather here each summer. How Iruka needed to experience the  _ joys _ of childhood as he had at his age. 

But there weren’t any Uminos left beside them and Grandma now.

_ There wasn’t even internet!  _

Unpacking kept him busy for a total of ten minutes. 

He bugged Mom and Grandma for another thirty before being shooed out to help Dad in the garage. That lasted around fifteen minutes (if he was counting correctly) before a very frustrated Ikkaku Umino shooed him off to  _ entertain himself.  _

Therein lies the problem. 

If Iruka could entertain himself, he wouldn’t be so dang bored!!

Even school would be better than this. Fifth grade meant getting Daikoku-sensei as a teacher, urgh. As much as school was a pain, at least his friends were there to make it easier. He couldn’t even keep in touch with them all the way out here. 

Stuffing his hands into his short pockets, Iruka kicked a rock in frustration. The pebble bounced down the pathway, rolling to a stop just beyond the forest’s edge. With nothing better to do, he trudged in after it. 

A few good kicks sent the rock ricocheting off some trees and into the tall grass. Iruka’s shoulders slumped. 

Great, now he had to find it. 

At least that would kill some time.

* * *

Kakashi’s day started like any other -quiet and peaceful. Summer painted Mount Myoboku in lush, vibrant greens. Alive with life. The soft clicks of cicada and tweets of birds filled the otherwise  silent air. It was cooler this far up the mountain, not that he had a preference either way. 

Temperature didn’t affect his kind like it did mortals.

So he sat upon the derelict steps of the Naka Shrine and enjoyed the summer morning for its beauty and tranquillity. Decades had  passed since humans last worshipped at the altar. That was fine. He wasn’t a Shinto spirit. His existence wasn’t tied to the belief of such fickle creatures, not like the shrine’s former deity was. 

Isolation suited him perfectly well.

His soul belonged to Mount Myoboku. So he watched over his domain and enjoyed the alluring silence it had to offer. That was his routine, his simple existence.

Kakashi preferred his life complication-free.

That’s why he chose to ignore the potential dilemma wandering along the periphery of his jurisdiction.  _ A human child. _ Posture slouched, shoulders drawn, head hung low, heels dragging along a trail no mortal traversed in over thirty years.

“Ah, he’s lost,” Kakashi mused.

It was obvious in the confused swivel of his head. How he glanced around every so often before hunching his shoulders. The boy lingered, traces of ill-placed hope still clinging. Did the child think someone would find him this far up Mount Myoboku? Chances of that were slim. 

No matter. It was none of his concern as long as the tiny human didn’t venture any farther-

Kakashi stiffened, masked face raised in disbelief. 

-towards the shrine. The boy’s foot hit the first, cracked step, hesitant. Another glance around. His lips thinned into a determined line, brows furrowed. A second step, then a third. Each one gaining confidence. 

Kakashi’s stomach dropped. The Naka Shrine lost its protective deity. Only sorrow and grief awaited mortals who dared to venture into unguarded holy spaces. 

Why did he care? Foolish humans were none of his concern. If this one wanted to get himself cursed, so be it. 

But those dark eyes were so bright and full of life. 

_ Damn it.  _

* * *

There were  _ so _ many steps.

Iruka swore people from long, long ago put all these steps on shrines just to make kids his age get some exercise. He’d been climbing for what felt like ever and making very little progress. Steps stretched before and behind him in an endless trail of eroded, grey stone. No matter how far he went, he never seemed to get any closer to the large shrine.

It towered in the distance, settled amongst green trees against an ever-blue sky. Iruka went with his parents to shrines to pray on holidays. He knew there would be attendants up there. People who could help point him back towards home. 

He just had to get there first. 

Wiping sweat from his brow, Iruka trudged on.

He should’ve paid better attention to where he was going. Maybe then he wouldn’t have gotten so turned around. The forest didn’t seem that deep, but Iruka couldn’t find his way back out. It felt like trees sprung up around him from nowhere. Almost like the woods were deliberately trying to trap him.

Naw, that was stupid.

It was a forest. He might have somehow ended up at a mountain shrine, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. This wasn’t a fairytale. Iruka wasn’t bewitched into coming here. He wasn’t following a red string of fate or something equally gross (romance, urgh). As embarrassing as it was to admit, he just didn’t pay attention to where he was going and got himself lost-

“You’re going the wrong way.” 

It was so sudden, so -seemingly- out of the blue, Iruka stumbled over his own feet. His head whipped up, eyes round with surprise. Someone else was out here. Who? Why? One of the priests from the shrine? Or a fool that got lost halfway up a mountain like he did?

The young man standing before him didn’t seem to fit either category. There, dressed rather formally (for a shrine visit off holiday at least) was the most extraordinary person Iruka had ever seen. There was something almost ethereal about him, from the wild, silvery hair to the stripes of pale skin peaking beneath his cerulean haori sleeves. 

The more peculiar thing was the porcelain hound mask obstructing his face. 

Brows furrowed, Iruka studied the newcomer. “Are you one of the shrine priests?” Were they preparing for a festival or something? Neither his parents nor grandmother  had mentioned anything. 

The young man shook his head, just a subtle dip of that alluringly ominous mask. The red curl of the hound’s mouth caught Iruka’s eye and refused to let go. There was something almost  _ sinister _ about it.

That only piqued his curiosity. 

“Go back down the steps and turn right.” A brief flick of his wrist elaborated on the directions. “About seventy paces to the southwest you’ll come across a stream. Follow the current and you’ll hit the main road.” 

Iruka followed the motion before snapping back around to face the stranger. “If you’re not from the shrine, what’re you doing up here dressed like that?”

The man’s shoulders stiffened. “That’s none of your concern.” 

“It is if you’re planning something sketchy,” the boy protested loudly. Grandma lived close to here. She’d be vulnerable once his family left at the end of the summer. No way would Iruka let someone cause her trouble. She had enough of a hard time since Grandpa passed away. 

“I assure you I am not.” The reply came in an unimpressed monotone. Like their entire encounter was an annoyance the stranger didn’t want to deal with. 

Iruka puffed out his cheeks, irritation flaring in his chest. He didn’t  _ ask _ this guy for his help. He approached Iruka on his own and gave it willingly. “Then you’ll have no problem showing me the way down.”

“I’m under no obligation to do so.”

“If you aren’t planning anything weird, then why not?” Planting his feet stubbornly, Iruka crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t budging unless this guy came with him. 

Grey eyes peered at him through the mask. Iruka felt a shiver crawl down his spine. Those eyes seemed to gaze into his very soul. “Fine.” Keeping a wide  berth between them, the young man walked around him and headed down the steps.

Iruka’s frown deepened into a scowl. What the heck was  _ that?  _ He wasn’t a contagious parasite or something. What high horse had this guy fallen off of? It was enough to spark his irritation into an indignant simmer. 

How  _ rude! _

Didn’t he have any manners? 

“Come on, I have better things to do than babysit a lost puppy.”

Biting back a snide remark, Iruka clenched his hands into fists and stomped after the older teen. Though that was really just an assumption. With his face covered like that, Iruka could only guess at his age. The stranger didn’t  _ sound _ that old, but the silver hair did throw Iruka for a loop. He carried himself with more authority than Dad did -shoulders back and head held high. 

He was a total enigma. 

And an utter  _ jerk!  _

He walked so fast, Iruka scrambled to keep up. He couldn’t shake the feeling this guy was doing it on purpose. The stranger’s feet seemed to glide effortlessly -almost like he wasn’t touching the ground. No matter how treacherous the terrain, it posed no problem for  _ him _ while Iruka struggled not to fall flat on his face. 

By the time they hit the stream, Iruka was breathless and sweaty. “Wait, I-I need a break,” he called after his reluctant guide. 

The silver-haired stranger halted long enough to glance over his shoulder. That hound mask lowered slightly as he checked Iruka from head to toe. “You’re fine.”

He turned abruptly and kept walking. Iruka’s cheeks puff out, anger spiking again.

How rude could one person get?

Shoving his weariness down, Iruka scrambled after the stranger, reaching to catch his haori sleeve. If this guy didn’t have a little _decent,_ common courtesy, then it was his duty to pound it into that thick skull. “I said wait-” 

The stranger  _ disappeared.  _

Just flitted out of existence like smoke on the wind. 

Iruka froze, his hand outstretched towards nothing but trees in the distance and the river trickling to his right. Wide-eyed, he stood, staring blankly at the spot occupied by the stranger mere seconds ago. The grass looked immaculate. 

Iruka slowly lifted one foot and peered at the greenery crushed beneath his own weight. A cold chill slid down his spine. “He’s not human.” The whisper rushed from his lips on a stuttered exhale. 

“You’re smarter than you look.” 

With a surprised yelp, Iruka sprang forward a few steps. He turned quickly, keeping his back from the creature masquerading as a human. “You!” Swallowing his mounting panic, Iruka pointed an accusatory finger at the spectre. “What do you want? Why’re you here?” 

“Do mortals not properly educate their offspring any longer?” The stranger countered with a question of his own. “Myoboku is  _ my  _ mountain.” 

“These lands have been in the Umino clan for generations!” Iruka spat back. He didn’t know a whole lot about the history of his family, or  _ why  _ returning to the old homestead was so important, but he knew that much. 

The stranger’s shoulders stiffened. “...The Umino lineage still prevails?” 

“Of course we do!” Iruka’s chest puffed out with pride before deflating a bit. “Well, I mean, it’s just Grandma, Mom, Dad and me,” he counted them off on his fingers, “but we’re still here! I’m Iruka Umino!!” 

“That explains how you got so close to Naka Shrine.” The spectre sighed and scrubbed a hand through his wild hair. “And why you were foolish enough to try touching a spirit.” 

The boy bristled. “What does that have to do with anything?”

His reluctant guide inhaled deep and steady. Iruka could almost see the exasperation rolling off the stranger. “I am only going to explain this once, so listen carefully. You are a mortal, made flesh and blood from the earth. You grow and live. When that life ends, you return to the soil. As do the plants and other animals.”

“And you’re… not?” 

“No, I am not.” He could almost hear the eye roll. “My kind is timeless. We exist beyond the tangible, bound to your reality only when a need arises. My soul belongs to Myoboku. The mountain keeps me rooted in your world and in exchange, I protect it. You’ve trespassed into  _ my _ domain, Iruka Umino, not the other way around.” 

Iruka's breath stuttered in his throat. The air suddenly felt suffocating, like all the oxygen was being pulled from around him. A cool sweat broke out across his brow. Iruka opened his mouth to speak, but his voice eluded him. 

The spirit drifted past him and -yes, his feet really weren’t touching the ground. “Come, Myoboku is no place for a human child after sunset.”

“What? Are there  _ more _ of you around here?”

The hound mask peered back at him again, the red, twisting smile all the more ominous cast in later, afternoon shadows. “Stay after sunset, you’ll discover the answer for yourself.”

A cold shiver crawled up Iruka’s spine. “Uh, no thanks.”

Without another word, the stranger continued along the riverbank. Iruka stuck his tongue out at the spectre’s back. Spirits were supposed to be all ethereal and mystical, not smug jerks. 

“Do that again and I’ll curse your face to freeze that way.” 

Quickly pulling his tongue back in his mouth, Iruka jogged to catch up to his reluctant guide. “Can you really do that?” 

The stranger ignored him and kept walking like the antisocial brat Iruka was starting to think this spirit really was. 

“What’s your name?” 

Still nothing? Did this guy not appreciate the value of niceties? He could at least be civil. It wasn’t like Iruka wandered up the mountain on purpose. He got lost. 

“So what’ll happen if I  _ do _ touch you?” Iruka wiggled his fingers in the stranger's direction.

Those grey eyes flicked to him briefly. “Don’t.”

_ “Tell me,”  _ he whined. Iruka knew he sounded like a petulant child. Good, that was his intention. If being nice got him ignored, maybe a different tactic would spur the spirit into talking to him more. After all, he _was_ just a kid. 

If this was to be a battle of wills, well, two could play at that game. 

“How long have you been up here?”

Still no response. 

“Can you leave the mountain?” 

Still nothing.

“Do you have a favourite colour?”

The spirit seemed to stomp down a little harder as he walked (floated?), but maybe that was just Iruka’s imagination.

“Maybe a favourite food?” 

Was his hand starting to twitch?

“Wait, can spirits even eat human food or do you have mystical spirit fruit in the netherworld or something?” 

Oh, that was definitely a fist. Iruka was so getting a reaction now.

“I bet your wonderful hospitality spooked off all your ghost buddies.” 

The spirit stopped so abruptly, Iruka almost slammed into his back. Of course, he flickered out of view at the last possible second. “What do you want?” The silver-haired stranger almost snarled from behind him. Oh dang, seemed like Iruka annoyed him a little more than he intended. 

Still, it worked like a charm. 

“Your name would be pretty cool,” Iruka grinned, more than a little pleased his plan had worked. “That way I can stop referring to you as  _ Spirit Creeper _ in my head.” 

He was pretty sure the spirit really did growl that time. Maybe he was a komainu or something? That would be really cool-

“...Kakashi.”

Iruka blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“I am called Kakashi.” 

“Oh, awesome!” Iruka turned to face his reluctant guide, his smile only widening. So the grump was a little personable after all. He could work with that. “It’s great to meet you, Kakashi!” 

**Author's Note:**

> The art in this chapter was created by the lovely Anannua! You can find all her amazing artwork on her tumblr [here](https://anannua.tumblr.com/).


End file.
